Abstract
Students who receive special education services are often marginalized in many school districts. Unlike their peers, they often are not exposed to complex level texts and do not develop critical thinking skills in reading and writing. In higher performing schools, students in general education and special education settings are “constantly encouraged to go beyond the basic learning experiences in challenging and enriching ways” (Langer, 2001, p. 839). How teachers approach literacy instruction and critical literacy directly affects students’ perceptions; it sends messages regarding who and what is valued. Students develop their identity through reading and learn to accept or reject what is presented in the texts based on their own life experiences. The current study investigated how students who receive special education services developed critical thinking skills when reading social justice and how their identity was developed while doing so. Participants for this study were students from a lower-performing middle school who received special education services within the mild/moderate setting of a resource specialist classroom (RSP) within the fifth largest school district in California. I collected and analyzed qualitative data such as student artifacts, audio recorded lessons, and field notes. Overall, students developed critical thinking skills as well as their identity from reading social justice poetry and framed the poem from their lived experiences and knowledge. The students developed more “critical awareness of text” and “fostered critical perspective” with each unit. As the units were taught, students began to frequently question the motivation behind the words of the poems.